Massive Online Learning: 10gen and MongoDB Teach the World

10gen, a provider of cloud services and consultancy for the MongoDB NoSQL database, is working on training courses that will be available to developers worldwide starting October.

The massively open online courses, or MOOCs, will be delivered under the 10gen Education Program, and individuals who want to sign up can already register on the company’s site.

“Teaching MongoDB online through the innovative MOOC format allows us to make our best instructors available to users worldwide,” said Andrew Erlichson, vice president, Education at 10gen. “Offering online classes is a natural fit with our open source approach and a logical extension to the dozens of MongoDB events we hold around the world each year. “

This initiative is the result of a technological alliance with edX, a not-for-profit joint venture between MIT and Harvard that specializes in helping partners create these types of online education programs. edX is pioneering the development of interactive learning software that can accommodate university-level courses, and 10gen is making use of this technology.

The company says that the program will feature quizzes, and that courses will be available in ‘consumable video chunks’ to make sure that students stay engaged and get the hands-on experience they need.

According to research from Pentaho and other vendors, MongoDB, and consequently the demand for developers with understanding of the database, is on the rise. But at same time there’s also a gap as far as proficiency in big data technologies goes, and 10gen is hoping to fix that.